Networking » WAN Optimization

A day in the life of an application

In the quest to reduce operational costs and streamline business processes to improve company performance, organisations are increasingly Web-enabling their business critical applications and centralising operations to the data centre. This “virtual proximity” makes a lot of sense, but in making the move, many IT managers are discovering how ill equipped the WAN is to provide the backbone of application delivery. Slow or inaccessible applications mean infrastructure investments are wasted and employee productivity suffers dramatically.

By Steve O’Brien | 27 January, 2009 08:29

Tags: WAN

Predicting Wi-Fi performance: Can it be done?

Whenever I plan and configure an enterprise WLAN system, I always advise that an additional 10 to 20 percent of the capital budget be reserved for expansion and filling in holes in coverage or capacity that couldn't be anticipated during the planning process.

By Craig J. Mathias | 19 September, 2008 09:57

Tags: wi-fi

Five cloud computing questions

It seems that every decade or so I get the opportunity to write an article on IT deja vu. This time around, the topic is cloud computing, which is the latest IT buzz word.

Crafting a WAN? Consider the edges

Many IT executives consider the WAN to be a monolithic entity: a giant network that connects all the organization's sites across a common infrastructure.

WAN optimization: Tactical or strategic or both?

As you may have suspected from some of my prior columns, I've found the product strategies in the WAN optimization market something of a puzzle.

Building a new data center? Think WAN

Practically every company I talk with is consolidating data centers, constructing new ones, or both. These aren't the old "glass house" models of the 1980s and 1990s: They're next-generation designs with racks of blade servers, virtualized clusters and storage-area networks.

The waning of the WAN? Not so fast

Many of my clients are getting serious about the Internet. Let me explain: No, they're not Rip Van Winkles who've slept through the technology innovations of the past 20 years. But they are thinking about how they can use Internet services to augment -- or even replace -- their WANs.

More skirmishing breaks out on the AutoCAD front

Just when it seemed as if a truce might be feasible, fighting has flared up again in the battle between the WAN optimisation vendors over just who can - or can't - accelerate the latest AutoCAD format for drawing files.

New Broadcom chip runs from 10Mbps to 10Gbps

Broadcom last week introduced a transceiver that can support the widest range of Ethernet speeds possible, from 10Mbps Ethernet to 10 Gigabit Ethernet - all over unshielded twisted pair wiring.